Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado Cuts Stake in MSA Safety Incorporated (NYSE:MSA)

Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado cut its holdings in shares of MSA Safety Incorporated (NYSE:MSA) by 5.9% during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 3,928 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 246 shares during the quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado’s holdings in MSA Safety were worth $737,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. BNP Paribas Financial Markets lifted its stake in MSA Safety by 30.3% in the first quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 26,606 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $5,151,000 after purchasing an additional 6,191 shares during the last quarter. Mountain Pacific Investment Advisers Inc. ID lifted its stake in shares of MSA Safety by 35.3% in the 1st quarter. Mountain Pacific Investment Advisers Inc. ID now owns 122,898 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $23,792,000 after acquiring an additional 32,054 shares during the last quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale boosted its holdings in MSA Safety by 231.0% during the 1st quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 63,941 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $12,294,000 after acquiring an additional 44,625 shares during the period. Quadrature Capital Ltd grew its position in MSA Safety by 80.9% during the 1st quarter. Quadrature Capital Ltd now owns 17,173 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $3,323,000 after acquiring an additional 7,681 shares during the last quarter. Finally, M&G Plc purchased a new position in MSA Safety in the 1st quarter worth approximately $3,625,000. 92.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

MSA Safety Trading Down 1.3 %

NYSE MSA opened at $178.53 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $7.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.45 and a beta of 0.99. MSA Safety Incorporated has a fifty-two week low of $147.35 and a fifty-two week high of $200.60. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $180.26 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $184.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a quick ratio of 1.54 and a current ratio of 2.45.

MSA Safety (NYSE:MSA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 24th. The industrial products company reported $2.01 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.97 by $0.04. MSA Safety had a net margin of 14.97% and a return on equity of 30.64%. The business had revenue of $462.46 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $461.30 million. On average, analysts forecast that MSA Safety Incorporated will post 7.75 earnings per share for the current year.

MSA Safety Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 10th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 15th were paid a $0.51 dividend. This represents a $2.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.14%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, August 15th. MSA Safety’s payout ratio is currently 30.22%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on MSA. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on MSA Safety from $200.00 to $215.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, July 26th. William Blair raised shares of MSA Safety to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 16th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Nishan J. Vartanian sold 3,945 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $189.00, for a total value of $745,605.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 31,953 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,039,117. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 6.20% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

MSA Safety Company Profile

MSA Safety Incorporated develops, manufactures, and supplies safety products and technology solutions that protect people and facility infrastructures in the fire service, energy, utility, construction, and industrial manufacturing applications, as well as heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and refrigeration industries worldwide.